Clawfinger – The Swedish Veterans Open Up (2007)

RockLine: Hi Bård! I know this question gets asked a lot, but tell me anyway, how does it feel to stroll through the endless crowd at this festival?

Bård Torstensen: At the very start the feelings were really intense and mixed, since we played so early on the bill here. We hadn’t played an event this big in a few years. There was a bit of stage fright, but we gave in to the moment, chased away all the unnecessary fears and tore into it in our old manner from the first few songs, and it turned out the effort was more than rewarded. Zak (Tell; singer) connected with the crowd in a worthy way and the communication flowed the way it should. The old songs, which some of the older folks at this year’s festival might still know from the golden days of MTV, went down just as well, and since the atmosphere was so honest and intense (in a positive sense), we got the same wild reception while playing some songs that haven’t been heard yet. Really something else! Clearly you have to stick to the old recipe: relax and be part of the crowd as one.

RockLine: It’s true, the crowd was really hungry to see you again. Like we saw you play in Slovenia, for example. I might be wrong, but I remember you played two shows here …

Bård: Three … Ljubljana twice, and then we played some kind of bikers’ gathering where we all got together somewhere in the middle of a forest.

RockLine: And what are your memories of Slovenia and the shows? You played one last year and another in 1995. How do they compare?

Bård: It was always amazing! Now that you mention last year’s show, if I remember right, we’ve been to Slovenia four times so far … After the first visit in 1995 I honestly wondered whether the experience could get any crazier. Unbelievable! The Eastern countries – I count Slovenia among the former Eastern countries – usually have a more restrained concert energy and drive. We were in Warsaw and I honestly find it hard to draw a direct parallel with Slovenia … Slovenia is such a small country and it has the concert culture and looseness of the Western countries. Stage diving and crowd surfing are a mild description of what we experienced at your place, and we were wondering what the hell was going on here? And in such a small country. Totally nuts! After going your own way and gaining independence, you blended in with the neighboring countries very quickly. So there’s no need to dig too deep for memories, they’re always so close and a comfort in bad moments.

RockLine: And when you compare East and West, are you comparing the shows?

Bård: Not from the concert standpoint. I’m comparing what I experience on an ordinary walk through the streets. I usually head out to relax after arriving somewhere, and that’s how I charge my batteries mentally before the show. I always want to feel the pulse and essence, the soul of the country or city we’re playing in. That isn’t hard, since nobody recognizes me, so I can look around undisturbed at everything that would be hidden from my eyes because of, say, stardom. Show-wise, we were honored with four great gigs in Slovenia. And what’s incredible is that an acquaintance told me legends were born at your place too. Look what you have! Laibach! When I saw them play live, it was clear that you can’t radiate such a powerful stage presence just like that. Time and circumstances carved you. That’s rock’n’roll. What we do – that’s pussy fuck’n shit! If only we could do what Laibach did. That’s the real deal! All I can feel toward the anti-regime heroes of the music business is respect. As far as that goes, we’re real babes in the woods!

RockLine: You said earlier that nobody recognizes you on the street, but it wasn’t always like that. A few years back you were pretty much a fixture of the video lineup on MTV and the other, let’s call them “real and big” stations. What happened when MTV switched off its spotlights and turned its gaze elsewhere, and then overlooked you more often than not?

Bård: For us it was actually a conscious state of acceptance, since we knew it would happen sooner or later. People get tired of your face and somebody else takes over the small screens. That’s the natural state of the video business. Fifteen years ago we were younger and better-looking, but if we’d bet only on that, we’d have been the only ones losing. They’d have gotten sick of us. Instead we carried on with what seemed worth carrying on with. Economically speaking, the reasons would be pretty poor. Every month I usually get, from what I’ve earned, only an industrial worker’s salary. Still, money earned this way tastes sweeter to me. Money is no reason to drag things out. We made a conscious decision to do what matters to us first and foremost, and we keep at it. Even if, let’s say, nobody cares. As far as I’m concerned, I couldn’t give a damn about such bizarre stuff, since I know I’m doing something I pour my soul and body into, and I’m ready to sacrifice something for it. Maybe there aren’t as many of those left who used to buy our shirts and worship us for whatever they thought we stood for, but I believe there’s at least a handful of like-minded people who like us for what we deliver at small, medium and big shows.

RockLine: This lack of media attention would have wrecked plenty of people, but you stuck it out twelve years later. The total tally is 7 albums and an uncountable number of shows, battle scars and thousands of kilometers. Now you’re presenting your latest record – Life Will Kill You. What did you want to tell the world with this album?

Bård: Despite the title, this record has a lot more to do with a fact of life that can’t be escaped – death. I don’t know why … Actually, I do know, but I don’t know whether I want to tell you.

RockLine: Then the album’s message must be pretty pessimistic if you don’t want to reveal it.

Bård: No. It’s very optimistic. It’s purely a therapeutic effect, when you want to explain certain things and events that happened. There’s not a speck of pessimism. OK, I’ll tell you something I don’t do every day. My father died in November ….

RockLine: Our sincere condolences.

Bård: Thanks … Death has always been present in my life, but never so directly. Something shifted in me and I started writing about it. I started writing about things that didn’t reveal my inner states directly, but talked about, say, death as seen on TV. I started writing about suicide bombers, about hunger… But when it hits someone close to you, the impersonal abstraction becomes your damn business. My father and I weren’t very close, so I can’t sit here inconsolably mourning his death for you. Death is part of our lives. I hadn’t experienced it myself yet, but the main question in my mind was simply what death actually is. What is life? What is death? How a person dies is connected to how a person lives.

RockLine: My take is that this time you’ve shifted from less direct communication to another level. What do you expect from the whole promo run and from the album after all this?

Bård: I’ll be able to tell you about the reception in a year or two, but mostly I’ve been pleasantly surprised that the critics have received it quite well. My personal expectations are really completely wiped out. At zero! If you have no expectations whatsoever, and that’s what I’ve learned myself over all these years, then you can’t be disappointed. You just have to know you really gave it your all. I can only speak about my hopes and wishes … What I wish and hope for is that the album gets at least a little media attention.

RockLine: Part of that is also the fact that you’re here and that your show will be distributed using diRec USB recording technology, which is being presented at this festival for the first time. What’s your take on modern technology, MP3s, internet distribution and the like?

Bård: In this music business it was really always just about making a living and about trends for many people. The sound could be improved. Then there are, for example, In Flames, who recorded only five songs. We got excited about it right away. We’ve made quite a few mistakes in our career, but this sounded like a perfect thing for us. True, you don’t want to immortalize something full of mistakes. Still, I’ve heard quite a few albums that were full of mistakes and I was actually thrilled by them, by their unpolished honesty. You tell yourself: “Thank God I’m not perfect! I’m only human!” And a few years later we can have fun with it and revive genuine memories of the event itself …

RockLine: ŠOne last question, since I know you want some rest, but I ask it of everyone and I’ll ask it of you too. What are the short-term and long-term plans for you as a member of Clawfinger, personally as a human being, and for you as a collective?

Bård: Short-term, it’s a beer after the show, then intense live promotion of the record and nonstop writing of new material, even if not all of it ends up on records. The point is to play, write and record. Not to write a hit but to always keep moving. After that I’d like to go home for a couple of weeks and recharge my batteries. I’d start working and recording in a focused way. That’s partly the long-term plans too. A long-term plan for me is already getting through the winter and making it to next spring.

RockLine: And the next logical step Clawfinger will take in the future, progressing in terms of your musical evolution?

Bård: When we go off to record a new album, we don’t know exactly everything we want to do, so it’s always musical evolution in the sense of spontaneity. We simply do what we want. Always … We always have outlines that we then color in with collective effort. It’s always about everyone being present together.

RockLine: We were damn thorough. One more thing: what would you like to tell our readers and Clawfinger fans?

(the door opens and from behind, the most recognizable face of Clawfinger approaches our microphone – charismatic singer Zakk Tell)

Zakk Tell: Whatever this little guy in front of your microphone is feeding you is a lie! He’s a notorious liar! He’s a Norwegian, has no culture and is old. (laughs) I’m Zakk, by the way, the singer in Clawfinger!

RockLine: We’re just wrapping up the interview and we’ve come to the last, closing act, where you tell our readers whatever’s weighing on your soul – messages or even haiku poetry … (laughs)

Zakk: Great! I figured you had something more interesting here than the usual dry stuff! My message is: don’t call this record a comeback, because we’ve been here for years and years! And we plan to stay here for all the years and years that follow!

Bård: I think it goes something like this: listen to the record, form your own opinion, and you can throw it away if you don’t like it …

Zakk: Actually, listen to it properly in peace and quiet, at maximum volume …

Bård: In peace and quiet and at maximum volume ….(laughs)

Zakk: Of course! I meant peace and quiet in your surroundings, so only our music rings out juicily from the speakers. If you care, we’d be honored if you supported the band. And if you don’t care, you can buy a copy for a friend who might fall in love with it. You can give it as a gift for Christmas or some other convenient date. In Sweden we celebrate the equinox too. You can also buy it for your dog. You can also use it as a coaster for the spaghetti you cooked when you don’t want to damage the varnish on your table. You can use it in a million ways … Hard to pull off, though! Yeah … You could make an amazing lamp by covering it with hundreds of copies of our record. CDs hanging all around could create a really amazing light effect. That’s basically everything when it comes to the practical uses of our record.

RockLine: Personally, I think most fans will do something you didn’t mention, the thing records are made for – put it in the CD player and listen … Over and over …

Zakk: Good idea!